WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, now in theaters.
In the Mulan animated movie, as well as the 2020 Disney remake, the message of female empowerment resonated big time. In Imperial China, she infiltrated the army, pretending to be a man to serve in her dad's place, breaking gender barriers and letting the world know what women can do. To this day, it's one of Hollywood's biggest feminist statements and as Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina) embrace their own Chinese heritage in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Katy gets her own Mulan moment as well. What makes it even sweeter is that she gets to walk all over a toxic trope in the business too.
In Shang-Chi, Katy's not the best warrior, as she's just a valet from San Francisco who likes partying and karaoke. Shang-Chi saves her a few times from Wenwu's forces, especially assassins like Death Dealer and Razor Fist. In return, Katy provides moral support for him and his sister, Xialing, regarding their family woes.
However, when Katy gets to Ta Lo with them and is regaled with the history of how the Great Protector, a water dragon, left its scales to make weapons and armor and empowered the soldiers to defend the realm, Katy's mentality changes. She wants a piece of the action and gets hands-on, akin to a disguised Mulan training with her army. Sadly, while she improves in archery, she's still not valued as a soldier.
It's akin to how men in Mulan belittled women, reducing them to mates rather than the badass warriors they could be. Katy even has her own ridiculous moment of oppression, subjugation and ignorance in the final battle, when a war general, Guang Bo, takes her bow and arrow away from her. He motions for her to sit this one out because she's not equipped for the fight, which angers her.
Katy turns this into inspiration, though, just like when Mulan (in the remake) grabbed her bow and arrow, attacked the Rourans and revealed that a woman was destroying them. She shot them up and brought an avalanche down, although her actions got her excommunicated. Still, Mulan had to let the world know she couldn't hide who she was anymore. While Katy doesn't face the same anti-feminist sentiment, she does face the judgment that she's not a good enough warrior, which causes her to unleash her fighting spirit much like Mulan did.
When the Dweller-in-Darkness beats down Shang-Chi and tries to suck out the soul of the Great Protector, an arrow comes flying through its throat. It weakens the beast, allowing the hero to get the upper hand with the rings to defeat it. This is shot by none other than Katy in a proclamation of power and glory, all with a wide smile. It shows why she has her own archer action figure, which honors how Awkwafina honed her archery skills for Shang-Chi while celebrating this epic underdog moment.
Later, they even joke about it over drinks with their friends as Katy takes aim at the toxic trope of the "Mary Sue." Close-minded folks use this term for women like Star Wars' Rey, as they think these heroines are covered with plot armor and undeservedly powered up so they can win by any means necessary. Well, Katy indicates she didn't know anything about war, trained for a short while and then shot a soul-sucking destroyer down. She relishes how she went from a normal person to being a savior, digging at haters, with Shang-Chi acknowledging that she did indeed save the world.
To see Katy step up and silence doubters, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.